How to Store Firewood & Keep Firewood Dry
February 10, 20235 min readWalden Backyards
Dry firewood lights faster, burns hotter, and throws fewer sparks than wood that has been sitting out in the weather. Most of that work happens long before you strike a match: where the stack sits, how you build it, and what you put over the top of it.
Which Wood Is Worth Storing
Storage only pays off on wood worth stacking. Seasoned hardwoods carry the most heat per log and burn clean, so oak, maple, hickory, ash, and beech are what you want filling the rack. Softwoods like pine and cedar are full of resin. They catch quickly and smell good, which makes them useful as kindling or for a short evening fire, but they smoke, pop, and throw sparks, and the resin leaves creosote behind. They are not a primary fuel, and they do not belong under food. Keep a small amount of softwood on hand for starting fires and stack hardwood for everything else.
How to Store Firewood
How you store firewood depends on your space and your climate, but the same handful of rules hold up almost everywhere.
Store Firewood Off the Ground
Wood stacked on bare ground pulls moisture up out of the soil, which makes it hard to light and smoky once it catches. Set the stack on a raised platform, on pallets, or on blocks so air can move underneath it.
Choose Partial Shade, Not Full Sun
A spot in partial shade with open air on the sides dries wood at a steady pace. Full sun dries the outside of each log much faster than the inside, and the log cracks as it pulls apart. Look for ground that drains, too. A low spot that holds water after a storm will undo everything else you do.
Keep Firewood Away from the House
Keep the stack at least 10 feet from the house. That distance lowers the fire risk, and it keeps carpenter ants, termites, and spiders from moving straight out of the woodpile and into your walls.
Cover the Top, Not the Whole Stack
A tarp or a simple roof over the top of the stack keeps rain and snow off the wood. Leave the sides open. Wrapping the stack or tucking the cover underneath the bottom row seals moisture in with the wood, and wood that cannot breathe rots instead of drying. A seasoning cover is cut for exactly this job. It covers the top and the first few inches of the stack and leaves the rest of the sides open to the air. For wood that is already dry and heading into winter, a full rack cover comes further down the sides.
Use a Firewood Rack
A rack handles the two hardest parts at once: it holds the wood off the ground and it keeps the stack from falling over. Racks run from a few armloads to a full cord, so pick one sized to how much you burn in a season. A 6 ft rack takes about a third of a cord, a 12 ft rack holds three quarters, and a 16 ft rack takes a full cord. They are arc-welded from 16-gauge American steel by the Alexander family in southeast Kansas, who have been building them since 1927.
How to Keep Firewood Dry
Putting the stack in the right place is half the job. The rest is how you split it, how you build it, and how you work through it.
Split Firewood Before You Stack It
Splitting opens up the inside of the log and dries it far faster than leaving rounds whole. Split before you stack, not after, and split to pieces that fit your fire pit or fireplace.
Stack Firewood with Air in Mind
Start with a few large logs as a base, then build up in rows with space between the pieces so air moves through the stack. Mix your split sizes as you go instead of sorting them. A stack of uniform pieces packs tight, and a tight stack holds condensation against the wood.
Rotate the Stack Oldest First
Burn the oldest wood first and add new splits to the top or the back of the stack. Wood left at the bottom of a pile through three seasons goes punky, and punky wood is wasted wood.
Check the Moisture Before You Burn
Most wood needs at least six months of drying, and dense hardwoods often want a full year. A moisture meter settles the question for a few dollars: split a piece, press the pins into the fresh face, and look for a reading under 20 percent. Above that, the fire spends its heat boiling water out of the log and you get smoke instead of flame. If a load reads high, stack it back and pull from the older end of the pile, with a fire starter to get things going.
Store Firewood Under Cover
A shed, a lean-to, or the space under a porch or an awning all work, as long as air still moves through. A closed garage is a poor choice. It traps moisture around the wood and gives pests a short walk into the house.
Carrying It to the Fire
The last few feet matter more than people expect. Hauling split wood by the armful is how bark, bugs, and splinters end up on the floor between the stack and the fire. A log carrier takes a full load in one trip and keeps the mess off you, and for longer runs across a yard a firewood cart moves up to 300 pounds at a time.
Save a Half-Burnt Log for the Next Fire
Pouring water over the fire at the end of the night soaks every log still in the pit, and those logs sit wet until the next time you use them. A snuffer lid ends the fire by cutting off its oxygen instead. The partly burnt logs stay dry, and they light again the following evening with almost no work. If you need to move a burning log before you close the lid, use a stoker poker rather than pulling the fire apart by hand.
Keep Firewood Dry and Ready for the Fire Pit
Off the ground, in partial shade, split, stacked loose, covered on top, and rotated oldest first. That is the whole system, and it holds up in most climates. Pair it with a fire pit grate that lifts the wood and keeps air moving under the fire, and dry wood will light on the first try.
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